Weekend Box Office Report – Dinner For Schmucks

Last weekend at the box office, the big comedy was the Steve Carell, Paul Rudd (directed by Austin Powers and Meet the Fockers director Jay Roach) vehicle Dinner For Schmucks.

Schmucks brought in $23.3 million dollars over the weekend, enough for a 2nd place box office finish behind Inception.

The general assessment of the Schmucks performance is okayish. Critics were only lukewarm on the movie, and while this opening points to the movie making money, Schmucks is not expected to do Hangover-type numbers over time.

BoxOfficeMojo suggests that the film might do Funny People-type business:

Dinner for Schmucks served up an estimated $23.3 million on approximately 3,400 screens at 2,911 locations, which was about the same amount as Funny People made on the same weekend last year. The opening was also a step up from I Love You, Man, Role Models and Get Him to the Greek, and it marked a personal best for Paul Rudd in a lead role, though Steve Carell has seen bigger starts.

Although it didn’t nab the no. one position gross wise, it had the highest per-theater-average among the entire top ten, earning nearly $250 more per site than Inception.

This is primarily because Paramount Picture released “Schmucks” to just 2,911 locations across the United States, which quite frankly, is a little low for such a high-profile release.

Among most recent high-profile comedy releases, the movie’s opening is likely most comparable to Date Night, which opened to the tune of $25.2 million back in April. That film went onto have exceptional legs at the box office, taking in more than $98.4 million before exiting theaters.